Saving city's black history

Old Fire Station 19, once segregated, gets landmark status

Retired firefighter Sam Campbell, who served in old Fire Station 19, looked at photos of former colleagues. The old firehouse at Ocean View Boulevard at 36th Street, once the segregated home of the city's black firefighters, has been designated worthy of preservation. (John Gibbins / Union-Tribune)

Retired firefighter Sam Campbell, who served in old Fire Station 19, looked at photos of former colleagues. The old firehouse at Ocean View Boulevard at 36th Street, once the segregated home of the city's black firefighters, has been designated worthy of preservation. (John Gibbins / Union-Tribune)

San Diego 
From the outside, the worn and water-stained old fire station does not look like a landmark.

Yet the men who worked within its walls left a legacy of hard work and heroism, despite confronting harassment and ostracism.

San Diego recognized the significance of old Fire Station 19 last week, declaring that the building – once the segregated home of the city's small crew of black firefighters – is worthy of preservation.

Brothers United, a group of current and former African-American firefighters that has made the 82-year-old former station in southeastern San Diego its home, led the fight to secure its landmark status.

Deputy Chief Ken Malbrough, a 28-year veteran of the Fire-Rescue Department, has a strong connection to the Mountain View station, which was closed after the city replaced it in 1986.

The former president of Brothers United grew up in the neighborhood and knew firefighters who worked there before it was integrated. Malbrough called the station, on Ocean View Boulevard and 36th Street, “the first icon I knew from the neighborhood.”

Some of the men he met there became his mentors.

“This building's what's left of them,” Malbrough said.

The department hired its first three black firefighters in 1919. Some residents objected to having them serve in their communities, so when Fire Station 19 opened in 1927, it became the place where the city assigned all of its black firefighters.

Charles Robinson, who retired from the department nearly three decades ago, started his career at the segregated station. He didn't focus on the discrimination.

“I was just anxious and happy that I had a job, and a good job,” the 30-year veteran recalled.

The policy continued until 1951, when Fire Chief George Courser integrated the firehouses. The city hired Alwin Holman that same year. Although he sometimes worked at Fire Station 19, Holman was among the first blacks to be placed at a different site.

“It was a big thing, but the citizens of this city did not pay any attention to it,” Holman said. “I did not realize the impact this was going to have on the fire department.”

Councilman Tony Young said making the station a landmark will remind San Diegans of the hard work that firefighters such as Robinson put in, even in the face of segregation.

“Despite all that, these firefighters basically risked their lives and continued to provide service to the community,” said Young, who represents neighborhoods in southeastern San Diego. “That's a testament to the human spirit, I think.”

Preserving the station has been the focus of Brothers United since 2007, when the group's lease with the city ended and members feared the station might be sold.

The drafty building retains an old tower and engine bay from the original design, along with many fixtures, but the exterior and some rooms have been renovated.

Capt. Russell Steppe, the last black firefighter assigned to the old firehouse, recalls “the flavor of the station” – from the smell of the diesel fumes that became trapped inside the poorly ventilated house to the rat he and his colleagues learned to tolerate.